Tag Archives: aapl

Laptop, Tablet Bargain Hunters Have Many Top Choices

Rapidly advancing technology offers a mixed blessing. It doesn’t take long for what was once highly advanced and expensive technology to become a more affordable standard. But it also often doesn’t make a lot of sense to invest in costly stuff when a fairly short wait will make those products way less of a burden on your wallet. That’s what’s happening in the portables market. While you can still spend $500 on an Apple (AAPL) iPad Air 2 or $800 on

Apple losing tablet share to Lenovo, ‘white box’ vendors

Apple (AAPL) and Samsung no longer control the majority of the tablet market. The top two tablet makers accounted for 43% of tablet shipments last year, down from 50.9% in 2013, Strategy Analytics reported Wednesday. Both companies lost share in 2014 to Lenovo and generic “white box” tablet vendors, the research firm said. Apple led the tablet market with 26.1% market share last year, down from 32.6% in 2013. Samsung was second with 17.1%, down from 18.3% the prior year. Apple’s iPad shipments fell 15% year over year to 63.4 million units, while Samsung’s tablet shipments dropped 1% to 41.4 million units. Overall, tablet shipments rose 7% to 242.5 million units last year, Strategy Analytics said. The growth was driven by lesser-known brands outside of the top five and “white box” tablets that are branded by other companies. White box vendors grabbed considerable market share…

‘Patent troll’ clobbers Apple with $532.9 million verdict

Apple (AAPL) got clubbed by a so-called patent troll late Tuesday when a federal jury in Texas ordered Apple to pay $532.9 million to a company that produces nothing but patent infringement lawsuits. A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled that Apple’s iTunes software infringed three patents held by patent licensing firm Smartflash. Apple plans to appeal the decision. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said the outcome is another example that shows why reform is needed in the patent system to curb litigation by companies that don’t make products. “Smartflash makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no U.S. presence, and is exploiting our patent system to seek royalties for technology Apple invented,” Apple said in a statement. “We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating and unfortunately we have been left with no…